“In the office?”

Charlotte pressed her left hand to the wall and gripped the collar of Anthony’s lab coat with her right, leaning her weight into him.

“I…”

She stared him down, her breath warm on his face. Her smile looked sweet at first, but there was something cold about it that sent a chill right through him.

Anthony’s brow tightened. Before he could say anything, Charlotte spoke up again. “You’re searching for my mother while you’re basically living in the lab…”

“Anthony.” She said his name quietly, her fingers brushing over his cheek as their eyes met. “You’re not getting any younger. Staying up all night isn’t good for you.”

Anthony took her hand, his touch gentle. He leaned in a little, bumping his nose against hers, his voice low and rough. “You should know better than anyone how strong I am.”

Charlotte couldn’t think of a comeback.

“It’s… alright, I guess,” she said, not really meaning it. She slipped her hand away and headed for the microscope.

One look told her everything.

Another failed experiment.

Alright? That’s it?

Anthony felt both tired and a little defeated.

He took off his lab coat, went through the full routine of disinfecting, then came up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, his lips close to her ear as he spoke. “Why are you home early?”

“It’s done,” Charlotte said simply.

She didn’t explain, and Anthony didn’t push. Instead, he pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of her mouth. “You must be tired. Want to rest?”

Charlotte nodded. “Yeah.”

She turned off the microscope and faced him, her fingertips tracing the lines of exhaustion on his face. “Let’s go.”

So Anthony slipped his arm around her, and they left together.

Back at Imperial Heights, Charlotte came out of the bathroom to find Anthony already showered in the guest room. He was in gray-black pajamas, holding a hair dryer in one hand and his phone in the other, still talking work.

“Nora’s smart. If she wants to disappear, she’s not going to make it easy for us,” he said into the phone. “Especially anywhere she went with Franco. We have to be extra careful.”

Charlotte made a little noise, and Anthony turned around. “That’s all for now,” he said, and hung up.

He reached for Charlotte, guiding her to sit on the bed. He turned on the hair dryer and started drying her hair.

Charlotte stayed still, tilting her chin up, her eyes fixed on Anthony’s face. The dark circles under his eyes were impossible to miss.

“That’s enough,” she said, taking the hair dryer from him and tossing it onto the nightstand. “Let’s sleep.”

Anthony let out a quiet laugh, pulled back the covers, and lay down beside her. He scooped Charlotte into his arms, running his fingers through her hair.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead and pulled the blanket over both of them.

About half an hour later, Anthony was out cold.

Charlotte glanced at him, gently lifted his hand from her waist, and got out of bed as quietly as she could.

He didn’t wake up, even as she closed the door behind her.

For someone as alert as Anthony, he must have been completely spent to not even notice her leaving.

…

Charlotte threw on a jacket and sat on the couch in the living room.

Hans stood across from her, a thick stack of files laid out on the coffee table. Each one listed places where Nora might be hiding.

“Charlotte, we’ve checked almost every place on that list, but there’s still no sign of Franco or Nora,” Hans said.

Nora was just too smart. She covered her tracks everywhere. They couldn’t find her, and no one in Franco’s circle was answering their calls.